Choosing Your Tools

Chapter 1 can help you better understand how to run a game in different modes of play, set DCs, give out rewards, adjudicate the rules quickly and fairly, and adapt when special circumstances or problems crop up at your table. This chapter also contains advice on using and determining rarity in your game, working with your players to create a collaborative story, and adapting your game to meet the needs of the players at your table.

Using the information in Chapter 1, you can quickly get up to speed on the fundamentals of running a game of Starfinder. Using the tools in Chapter 2, you'll be able to build precisely the option you need for any game. Using the variant rules options in Chapter 2, you'll be able to tweak specific elements of the game, from backgrounds to the entire mathematical underpinning of the game, to suit your preferences or the needs of a particular setting or story. You'll also find advice in Chapter 2, such as guidance to make encounters more dynamic, which can help you fine-tune your GM skills. In Chapter 3, you'll find details on the Starfinder setting. Chapter 4 offers a variety of rules subsystems that provide a framework for specific endeavors and situations.

You'll find guidance in Chapter 1 specifically for running published adventures, and most of the advice in that chapter about running a game applies to published adventures. The information in Chapter 3 introduces the galaxy that you'll find featured in Starfinder's published stories. Scenarios in the Starfinder Society Organized Play program and Starfinder Adventures use the subsystems in Chapter 4. The Victory Points subsystem is the most fundamental of these, but many adventures also use the other subsystems found there for things like chases, vehicles, hacking, and cinematic starship combat.

If you are looking to create your own Starfinder adventures, Chapter 2 provides you design guidance ranging from the broad strokes of building an entire campaign, to writing individual adventures, to the particular considerations of creating an encounter. This chapter also provides a toolbox you can use to build the creatures, hazards, items, and other elements you want to use in your adventures.

If you plan to create your own setting, the world-building section of Chapter 2 can guide that process and help you establish the details you'll need to bring your galaxy to life. You can also use the information in Chapter 3 to detail those parts of your galaxy.

Starfinder is compatible with the second edition of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game! Chapter 5 provides guidance for incorporating material from Pathfinder into Starfinder—or vice versa. Anachronistic Adventures, Archaic Adventures, and Timeshifted Adventures describe different ways to mix the games and settings, such as by pulling characters from Pathfinder into Starfinder, running Starfinder characters on a low-tech world, or running a campaign about time travel. Ancient Foes and Ancient Gear provide advice for using Pathfinder creatures and equipment in Starfinder games.